In April 2025, Boeing reportedly sold Jeppesen, ForeFlight, AerData and OzRunways to private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $10.55 billion, raising eyebrows across the pilot community. While not all private equity takeovers diminish product quality and inflate prices, aviation has seen this before.
Many of us are bracing for higher costs, fewer updates and a slow drift away from pilot-first design. That’s what led me, a longtime ForeFlight loyalist, to give Garmin Pilot a serious look.